About
I decided to start a blog for three reasons:
1) People felt that there should be a part of the Threepenny website that was available only online, not in the printed magazine.
2) Some of the things I wanted to write about seemed as if they would benefit from a slightly more timely response than our usual quarterly publication permitted.
3) I was seeing and hearing so much interesting art — especially in the areas of dance and music, though also in literature, theater, and the visual arts — that I couldn't fit everything I wanted to say into The Threepenny Review without taking over the whole publication. And if you are not Diderot or Karl Kraus (and I am certainly neither), it is never a good idea to write the whole magazine yourself. But I figured the rules of blogs would allow me to monopolize one of those.
I struggled to come up with a good title for the blog and at first resisted using my own name, feeling (as those named Lesser are bound to feel) that diminishment is not necessarily a selling point. But then I figured that if people named Grudge or Drudge can use their names on websites, I should certainly not be abashed at calling this The Lesser Blog. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it.
Wendy Lesser
Editor, The Threepenny Review-
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Author Archives: Wendy Lesser
One Last Concert
My four weeks in Berlin are coming to a close, and I had no more concerts on the agenda. But I hate to let a night go by in this wonderful music-loving and music-producing city without taking advantage of its … Continue reading
Chamber Music Spaces in Berlin
During the past week, I’ve attended concerts in three of Berlin’s terrific spaces for chamber music — and I would have had a fourth, except that this week’s afternoon Espresso Concert at the Konzerthaus, normally held in one of the … Continue reading
Berlin with a Bang
I am always happy to return to the concert scene in Berlin (not to mention the rest of this wonderful city), but this time the results exceeded even my high expectations. In the past few days, I’ve been to three … Continue reading
Back with Esa-Pekka!
No sooner had I bid a regretful adieu to Esa-Pekka Salonen, as he departed the Bay Area last June, than he reappeared in my life by way of the New York Philharmonic. And New Yorkers are not the only ones … Continue reading
Mark Morris at the Joyce
I tend to avoid the hot, muggy months in New York, so I have missed most of the Mark Morris company’s recent summer performances at the Joyce Theater. But this year I had to be in New York anyway in … Continue reading
This Past Month or So
It’s a truism, I suppose, that there is no such thing as listening objectively to music. But criticism is somehow built on the idea that the critic is doing exactly that—bringing her expertise to bear on the sounds emerging from … Continue reading